Application-Based Incumbent Informing Capability for Spectrum Sharing

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/063,539, filed Dec. 8, 2022, entitled “APPLICATION-BASED INCUMBENT INFORMING CAPABILITY FOR SPECTRUM SHARING,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/287,507, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR APP-BASED INCUMBENT INFORMING CAPABILITY FOR SPECTRUM SHARING,” filed on Dec. 8, 2021, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/291,831, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR APP-BASED INCUMBENT INFORMING CAPABILITY FOR SPECTRUM SHARING,” filed Dec. 20, 2021. The content of each application is incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

The subject matter of this disclosure generally relates to the field of wireless network operations and, more particularly, to a wireless spectrum sharing mechanism that improves the ability of consumers of wireless services to share frequency bands.

Wireless broadband represents a critical component of economic growth, job creation, and global competitiveness because consumers are increasingly using wireless broadband services to assist them in their everyday lives. Demand for wireless broadband services and the network capacity associated with those services is surging, resulting in a growing demand for spectrum to support these services. Similarly, the number and type of devices being used by consumers to access content over wireless broadband networks has proliferated. All of these trends are resulting in more demand for network capacity and for capital to invest in the infrastructure, technology, and spectrum to support this capacity. The demand for increased wireless spectrum, moreover, is expected to continue increasing. In response, the Federal Communications Commission continues to work to make available additional licensed and unlicensed spectrum to meet this growing demand. Similarly, large enterprises, such as the Department of Defense (DoD), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and companies and organizations of various sizes, increasingly have a need to be efficient with the spectrum dependent systems they operate either as primary, co-primary or secondary licensees for the radio frequency bands they are assigned. Improved spectrum sharing mechanisms can greatly improve their efficient use of spectrum resources and give multiple stakeholders the confidence required to share frequency bands.

One or more aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a software application that may be downloaded to and executed on any type of end terminal (may also be referred to as a user equipment), through which UEs of heterogenous systems sharing a frequency band can inform each other and coordinate usage and transmission in the shared frequency band in a distributed and near real-time manner to avoid and minimize interference. This software application can provide an application-based approach for wireless spectrum management.

In one aspect, a spectrum management system includes one or more incumbent user equipment configured to operate in a frequency band and one or more primary user equipment configured to operate in the frequency band. The spectrum management system further includes a software application installed and executed on each of the one or more incumbent user equipment and the one or more primary user equipment. The software application is configured to determine information related to a schedule of use of the frequency band by the one or more incumbent user equipment and coordinate use of the frequency band by the one or more incumbent user equipment and the one or more primary user equipment to ensure transmissions by the one or more incumbent user equipment and the one or more primary user equipment do not interfere.

In another aspect, the software application is configured to determine the information by receiving a number of parameters from a corresponding user of the software application.

In another aspect, the number of parameters include one or more of a location of a corresponding one of the one or more incumbent user equipment, a time of transmission by the corresponding one of the one or more incumbent user equipment, and a frequency at which the transmission occurs.

In another aspect, the software application is configured to coordinate the use of the frequency band by transmitting the information to a network controller of a system with which the one or more primary user equipment are associated, the network controller managing the transmissions by the one or more primary user equipment do not occur at the location, the time and the frequency identified in the information.

In another aspect, the software application on any of the one or more incumbent user equipment is directly connected with the software application on any one of the one or more primary user equipment, the one or more primary user equipment being one or more base stations of a radio access network.

In another aspect, the software application is indirectly connected to the network controller via one or more intermediary components.

In another aspect, the one or more intermediary components include at least one of a federally operated spectrum coordination system or a commercial spectrum access system.

In another aspect, the one or more incumbent user equipment operate in a Radar system and the one or more primary user equipment operate in a radio access network.

In another aspect, the one or more incumbent user equipment operate in a first radio access network and the one or more primary user equipment operate in a second radio access network.

In another aspect, the spectrum management system further includes one or more environmental sensing components configured to monitor and detect operations of the one or more incumbent user equipment, wherein information obtained from monitoring and detecting the operation of the one or more incumbent user equipment may be provided to a spectrum access system, the spectrum access system being configured to use the information provided by the one or more environmental sensing components and the software application to coordinate transmissions by the one or more primary user equipment.

In another aspect, the spectrum management system further includes a network controller communicatively coupled to the software application installed on the one or more incumbent user equipment and the one or more primary user equipment, the network controller being configured to perform automated dynamic spectrum sharing.

In another aspect, the network controller is configured to perform automated dynamic spectrum sharing using a trained machine learning model.

In another aspect, the machine learning model is configured to receive as input, near real-time transmission information for the one or more incumbent user equipment and the one or more primary user equipment, and provide as output, predicted future transmissions on the frequency band, wherein the network controller is configured to perform dynamic assignment of resource blocks in the frequency band to the one or more incumbent user equipment and primary user equipment, based on the predicted future transmissions.

In another aspect, the software application is configured to determine the information in real-time.

In another aspect, the spectrum management system further includes at least one secondary user equipment configured to operate in the frequency band with the one or more incumbent user equipment and the one or more primary user equipment, the at least one secondary user equipment being associated with a system independent of systems with which the one or more incumbent user equipment and the one or more primary user equipment are associated, wherein the software application is installed on the at least one secondary user equipment to enable the coordination among the one or more incumbent user equipment, the one or more primary user equipment, and the at least one secondary user equipment.

Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations can be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, the following description and drawings are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in the present disclosure can be references to the same embodiment or any embodiment, such references mean at least one of the embodiments.

Reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which can be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others.

The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinary meanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in the specific context where each term is used. Alternative language and synonyms can be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein, and no special significance should be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein. In some cases, synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples of any terms discussed herein is illustrative only, and is not intended to further limit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any example term. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given in this specification.

Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples of instruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note that titles or subtitles can be used in the examples for convenience of a reader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unless otherwise defined, technical and scientific terms used herein have the meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, the present document, including definitions will control.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosed principles. The features and advantages of the disclosure can be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or can be learned by the practice of the principles set forth herein.

Management of radio frequencies is typically divided between government use of spectrum (for national security, public safety, critical infrastructure purposes, etc.) and commercial use of spectrum for business related activities (e.g., wireless service providers, broadcasters, etc.). Regulatory authorities implement statutory frequency resource objectives through various mechanisms. In the United States, Federal Departments and Agencies coordinate their use of spectrum bands through the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

The ever-increasing demand for access to the frequency spectrum and the finite nature thereof has led to a need for dramatically improvements in spectral efficiency in order to unleash the full potential societal value of these finite resources. This presents challenges for governments and companies alike that for decades have counted on exclusive access to fixed blocks of spectrum.

This has led to governance decisions that allowed compatible activities to share given spectrum blocks. For the most part, spectrum deconfliction consisted of relatively static mechanisms to allow secondary spectrum use in a given band as long as that use would not interfere with the primary license. This approach improved the number of supported spectrum dependent systems but reached a practical limit driven by the challenges associated with more granular coordination required to implement ‘dense packing’ of spectrum dependent systems in a given area.

Objectively, the incorporation of dynamic spectrum sharing as an element of system design will greatly reduce the amount of spectrum that at any given time goes unused. These systems, however, require significant technical coordination throughout the lifecycle of spectrum dependent systems. While there has been a degree of success among homogeneous systems and systems with strong technical and program governance over the lifecycle of user equipment, in most cases interagency, government and commercial spectrum deconfliction continues to rely on static mechanisms to coordinate use.

One or more aspects of the present disclosure address the deficiencies of such static mechanism for managing access to shared spectrum that would greatly improve national spectral efficiency through a near-real time spectrum coordination mechanism that allows incumbent system operators to use their existing spectrum-dependent systems without modification. This near real-time mechanism includes an application downloadable and executable on end terminals and user equipment (UE) such as a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop, a wearable electronic device, etc., that facilitates increased spectrum sharing for radios, radars and other equipment between enterprises that have little to no means or reason to coordinate their operations in a shared frequency spectrum. Such an application would facilitate sharing with lower link margins and process overhead than today's more static deconfliction planning methods.

For purposes of describing the inventive concepts of the present disclosure, a non-limiting use case will be described for heterogenous spectrum dependent system. In this non-limiting use-case the application provides an Incumbent Informing Capability (IIC) (hereinafter, may be referred to as IIC application) for frequency operations deconfliction between military radio, radars, Tactical Data Links (TDLs) and commercial point-to-point radios used by the Broadcast industry for Electronic News Gathering (ENG) and other entertainment content requiring live backhaul over Broadcast Auxiliary Spectrum (BAS) to a central facility from which over-the-air broadcast television and radio signals are transmitted. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this non-limiting use case and may be used by any entity (end user) having access to and utilize available frequency band(s) shared by multiple entities/users.

Referring back to the static mechanisms currently in use, Broadcasters coordinate channel use between local stations through a local community of interests using email, spreadsheets and norms developed through local ad-hoc agreements between users. Each local BAS Channel coordinator executes the deconfliction responsibility in a manner that works for local users, but results in significant variation in the ‘roll up’ of channel use data at the national level. The ENG industry has assigned a National Coordinator to be the primary interface for BAS deconfliction with DoD. The relatively rudimentary systems support, variations in local collaboration and risk averse protection decisions contribute to significant periods of fallow BAS that could be more efficiently used. Near real-time coordination workflow, better confidence between communities of interest through shared situational awareness and semi-automated system controls would reduce spectrum use opportunities lost through the current manual deconfliction mechanism.

In another example of existing static mechanisms, DoD has built a Spectrum Management Coordination System (SMCS) Portal designed to connect the various military organizations planning and conducting operations as co-primary users in the BAS bands dedicated for ENG use. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has made clear that while DoD enjoys co-primary status, DoD has the full onus to ensure that DoD system operations do not interfere with ENG incumbent use of the BAS band. The SMCS Portal serves as a repository for registered ENG operators and terminals, geographic limitations on DoD BAS Band operations, spectrum management and organizational contact information for military radio, radar and tactical data link operations. This portal replaced an e-mail coordination workflow whose ‘time-late’ nature and inherent ambiguities contributed to skepticism in the ENG community leading to resultant risk-averse protection of BAS with lower overall spectral efficiency. The Portal improves upon DoD coordination but will be sub-optimal without a complimentary coordinating mechanism for the ENG Broadcast community of interest (COI).

The near real-time coordination system and the IIC application disclosed herein will provide such a coordinating mechanism that is low cost, has a low barrier to entry, leverages existing wireless infrastructure and would provide affirmative feedback that ‘just in time’ BAS channel use notification is received, understood and acted upon by potentially interfering emitters. The distributed share situational awareness afforded by the SMCS Portal and the proposed BAS distributed IIC application results in reduced time and area protection declarations by the ENG COI, increasing the available periods of operations for military radio, radar and TDL use.

The proposed IIC application will have extensible utility in other shared bands, as governments continue to make legacy spectrum bands available for 5G and other new wireless systems. In some instances, the IIC application will provide optimal sharing coordination between enterprises. In other instances, the IIC application can serve as a useful stepping stone for automated dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) that will be designed into future systems. The metadata collected by the IIC application can support DSS system development and generate useful confidence building between organizations with disparate missions and business objectives.

In the non-limiting use-case described herein and as will be described in more detail below, the IIC application for BAS deconfliction will support ENG operations in the field, at fixed sites, at mobile ground stations and airborne BAS transmissions. The IIC application can pre-register BAS operators and their radios with the DoD operated SMCS portal. It can also collect definitive information on channel use (frequency), antenna selection (omni, directional, fixed, mobile), antenna orientation (azimuth or azimuth range), time, and geo-location, and use the collected data to generate protected BAS volumes in a temporal format that will support ‘just-in-time’ coordination with DoD. The IIC application can additionally support identification and rapid resolution of harmful interference between authorized BAS transmitters of differing co-primary priority status. The ENG community can rapidly communicate a ‘cease buzzer’ direction to DoD through SMCS should the de-confliction mechanism encounter an inappropriate transmission. In another use-case for the IIC application, a national defense organization such as DoD, may utilize the IIC application used on military 5G user equipment to enhance SMCS utility and provide out-of-band local validation for SMCS military system operations. The APIs used for the application would support simple integration with future radio, radar and TDL equipment and a wide range of Internet of Military Things (IoMT) wireless protocols.

Throughout the present disclosure references may be made to incumbent users or UEs, primary users or UEs, and secondary users or UEs. An incumbent user/UE may refer to any device of a system operating in a shared frequency band having the highest priority/privilege for transmission in the shared band (e.g., military radar systems and UEs associated therewith). A primary user/UE may refer to any device of a system having paid for a license or right to use the shared frequency band (e.g., UEs and base stations of a 4G/5G radio access network). A secondary user/UE may refer to any device of a system that uses the shared frequency band for transmission opportunistically and without paying for a license to use the shared frequency band.

1 FIG. 1 FIG. 100 illustrates a currently utilized spectrum management coordination system. More specifically,illustrates architecturefor spectrum sharing in the 2025-2110 MHz Band (hereinafter, shared band). However, a shared band may be any licensed and/or unlicensed frequency band in which multiple users/entities may operate.

102 104 106 SMCSmay be utilized to coordinate between the two systems having access to the shared band (e.g., 2025-2110 MHz). Two non-limiting examples of such systems can include DoDand Society of Broadcasting Engineers (SBE)/BAS.

104 108 108 108 110 112 114 104 112 102 108 104 115 102 DoDmay have a number of users accessing the shared band. Such users may include Tactical Radio Relay (TRR), Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS), High Resolution Video (HRV), Tactical Targeting Networking Technology (TTNT), which may collectively be referred to as users. Operations of any one of usersmay be processed through internal DoD mechanism and units. For example, requests for frequency band usage may be submitted by a userto a unit referred to as Industrial Scientific and Medial (ISM), which would then be forwarded to and reviewed by Army Futures Command (AFC) unit. Additionally, the spectrum usage may be coordinated with System Management Officeat DoD. Upon approval, a coordination request workflow may be executed between AFC unitand SMCSto coordinate presence and operation of any one of usersin the shared band. DoDmay also have a DoD SMCS administratorin charge of operating and administrating SMCS.

106 116 118 106 120 122 105 At the same time, SBE/BASusers may have incumbent operations in the shared band as well, which may have been licensed to them by FCCor any other organization in charge of doing so. Operators(e.g., local and national coordinators) of SBE/BASsystems such as ENGs, may register into SMCS Portal(e.g., using a coordination request workflow) and inform SMCS databaseof current usage and/or planned usage of the shared band by SBE/BASusers. Since news may happen at any time and at any place, such an approach where operators need to log into the portal and add the information is cumbersome and may not scale.

124 108 106 In one example, SMCS analyticsmay be utilized to analyze spectrum usage by usersand/or users of SBE/BASas well as provide various types of known or to be developed insights into data collected on spectrum usage by all parties.

2 FIG. 2 FIG. 1 FIG. 1 FIG. 200 104 108 110 112 114 115 102 120 122 124 illustrates an application-based spectrum management system according to some aspects of the present disclosure. A number of components of architectureofare the same as those described above reference toand hence will not be further described for sake of brevity. For example, DoD, users, ISM, AFC, SMO, DOD SMCS administrator, SMCS, SMCS portal, SMCS database, and SMCS analyticsare the same as that described above with reference to.

200 100 108 2 FIG. 1 FIG. On the other hand, architectureofdiffers from architectureofin that a distributed such that IIC application of the present disclosure is used in a distributed fashion by BAS users to provide a near real-time coordination of operation by usersand/or BAS users in the shared band.

2 FIG. 2 FIG. 202 204 206 208 210 212 214 As shown in, IIC applicationmay be downloaded on a respective user terminal of each BAS user such as UEof BAS user, UEof BAS user, and UEof BAS user. The number of UEs and/or users are not limited to that shown inand may be more or less.

202 202 206 210 212 102 IIC applicationmay be hosted on a private and/or public cloud infrastructure. Using IIC application, any one of users,, and/ormay access SMCS. Such access may be an Application Programing Interface (API)-based access using any known and/or to be developed API.

202 206 210 214 104 IIC applicationenables orchestration of the IIC from the Broadcasters (e.g., users,, and/or) which are one type of users of the shared band to operators and users of another type of users of the shared band (e.g., DoD). Such an approach provides a faster Machine-to-Machine spectrum sharing by leveraging well developed and secure Application Programming Interface (API) calls. In contrast to a user interface, which connects a computer to a person, an API can connect computers or pieces of software to each other. The calls that make up the API are also known as subroutines, methods, requests, or endpoints. An API specification defines these calls. An API may be custom-built for a particular pair of systems, or it may be a shared standard allowing interoperability among many systems.

206 202 204 202 206 120 216 204 218 206 220 222 224 2 FIG. 2 FIG. 2 FIG. 2 FIG. 2 FIG. In one example, a user (e.g., user) wanting to use the shared band may open IIC applicationon the corresponding UE. In using IIC application, usermay enter a number of different information which may then be conveyed to SMCS portalvia API calls, as shown in. The information entered can include, but are not limited to, whether the Broadcast is LIVE (shown as elementin), the geographical location of the operator, which may be captured from the location service of UEitself (shown as elementin), the frequency channel that is being used by the user(shown as elementin), a compasswhich may be used to provide the direction of an ENG antenna (shown as elementin), and transmit power if known to the operator (not shown), etc.

2 FIG. The application-based spectrum management system described above can support spectrum use coordination between any number of enterprise(s) and/or individual(s) wanting to rapidly confirm consideration and mitigation of harmful interference from systems using a shared band. While a BAS-DoD example described above with reference to, shows Radio-to-Radio spectrum sharing, the same application-based spectrum management system can be used to deconflict RADAR-to-Radio spectrum sharing, Radio-to-Electronic Warfare (EW) sharing or any other sharing needs between spectrum dependent systems sharing one or more radio frequency bands. While DoD uses SMCS to extend the primary user's ‘intent to use’ notification to secondary users in the same band, any portal-based or other Enterprise IT communication mechanism can also be used to inform the parties wanting to deconflict their use.

A RADAR-to-Radio example, might work as follows. Both the RADAR Operator and the Radio Access Network Intelligent Controller (RIC) would be connected through the Spectrum Sharing Gateway API. A RIC assigned as a secondary licensee could be operating continuously in a region for which a primary user would need to assert periodic privilege for exclusive use consistent with the functional requirements of the RADAR. The RADAR owner/operator would use the smartphone, laptop or PC based application to communicate to the RIC the geographic polygon, time and duty cycle requirements that it wants to assert primary use privilege for. This sharing could be relatively coarse and time-based only. It could also be much more granular with a sharing profile unique to the RADAR registered in the APP Spectrum Sharing Gateway. For example, a rotating RADAR may have a fixed rotation rate of 10 seconds requiring exclusive use for 1 second on any given radial. This pre-configured profile would be invoked at the gateway and synchronized via a heartbeat between primary and secondary application or between the RADAR application and the RIC. The RIC would then have the information needed to generate Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM) Resource Block Blanking in a manner that is fully synchronized with the RADAR Incumbent's spectrum needs. OFDM is used in Wi-Fi, 4G/5G and various other commercial waveforms.

In this RADAR-to-Radio sharing scenario, trust between primary and secondary users is further enhanced by a ‘cease-buzzer’ override request feature. Should the primary user ever perceive that secondary user signaling has become harmful interference, the app supports rapid, semi-automatic communication of an order for the secondary user to cease operations in the shared band. This could also included pre-agreed issue escalation contacts between the organizations, to more rapidly deconflict sharing problems and restore maximum band efficiency.

3 FIG. 2 FIG. 3 FIG. 2 FIG. 3 FIG. 300 302 302 304 302 306 308 310 308 306 302 312 302 302 302 illustrates an example use of the application-based spectrum management system ofaccording to some aspects of the present disclosure. More specifically, architectureofillustrates the use of IIC application described with reference toin the context of a RADAR-Radio spectrum sharing. As shown in, two example systems include communications system(may also be referred to as a radio access network) and airborne radar system. Communications systemmay be a 5G wireless communication system with eNodeBs, 5G core(that may include any number of functions and components for operation of a 5G network as known and/or to be developed), a plurality of UEsconnected to 5G corevia eNodeBs. The communication systemmay further include a network optimizerthat can be configured to optimize various aspects of operations and signaling within communications system. While a 5G network is mentioned as an example of communication system, the present disclosure is not limited thereto and communication systemcan be any other known or to be developed communication system such as a 4G/LTE system.

304 314 316 316 318 304 302 Example airborne radar systemmay include a central component such as aircraftwith rotating radarand any number of aircrafts communicating using services of rotating radarsuch as aircrafts. In one example, radar systemmay be the primary user/licensee of a shared band while wireless communication systemmay be the secondary user/licensee of the same shared band.

304 304 304 302 3 FIG. Airborne radar systemmay be any type of airborne radar system, for example, Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). Airborne radar systemcan transmit and receive RF signals (shown by the dotted lines in). Airborne radar systemmay transmit and receive RF signals corresponding to a particular frequency band or range, for example, FR1. FR1 may be a shared band/range also used by wireless communication system.

306 310 306 310 302 304 304 302 AWACS radar systems can be extremely sensitive, being designed to detect aircraft, ships, and vehicles at long ranges (e.g., 200 km and more), and to distinguish between friendly and hostile targets. AWACS radar systems have sensitive receivers with high gain. The high gain helps the AWACS radar system to detect weak backscatter from targets. Energy directed into the AWACS radar may interfere with the receiver. For example, energy from 5G eNodeBsand UEsmay desensitize the AWACS radar system and interfere with detection, or backscatter from targets may be lost in the noise generated by the transmissions from 5G eNodeBsand UEs. In some examples, spectrum sharing between 5G systemand the AWACS radar systemmay reduce interference with detection and may reduce noise. In this particular example, incumbent user of spectrum may be radar systemwhile 5G communication systemmay be the Primary or the Secondary user of the spectrum.

314 316 320 202 320 316 2 FIG. As noted above, an operator of aircraftwho may also operate and manage airborne radar system, can install and access IIC application(which may be the same as IIC applicationof) on a UE. In another example IIC applicationmay be embedded in radar systemitself.

320 322 324 322 308 326 316 320 308 324 308 320 IIC applicationmay be communicatively coupled (via any known or to be developed secure logical connection) to Sharing and Coexistence System (SCS)(which may also be referred to as a Spectrum Coordination System) that may be federally operated for coordinating spectrum licensing and usage. There may also be another commercial SCS or Spectrum Access System (SAS)that may be communicatively coupled to federal SCS, 5G core, and Environmental Sensing Control (ESC) mechanism. As noted above, RADAR owner/operator of radar systemcan access IIC applicationon a UE and communicate to a RIC (e.g., 5G coreand/or SAS) the geographic polygon, time, and/or duty cycle requirements that it wants to assert primary use privilege/access for in order for 5G coreto ensure no transmission/interference in the shared band at the designated time/duty cycle specified by radar operator using IIC application.

326 304 326 304 326 304 326 324 ESCmay detect signals transmitted by airborne radar systemand/or may collect other data. In some examples, ESCmay calculate the location of airborne radar system, using any appropriate method such as Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA), Angle of Arrival (AoA) or some other interferometric technique. In some examples, ESCmay be prohibited from determining the location of airborne radar system, for example, due to operational security concerns, and may instead sense the RF spectrum. ESCmay then provide the RF spectrum data it collects to SAS.

3 FIG. 302 304 320 322 320 322 320 322 In one example scenario of, 5G communications systemmay operate within some geographical area and within some spectrum bands as Radar system. IIC applicationthat may be collocated with the incumbent, may use APIs to convey the Radar spectrum usage schedule to Federal SCSusing some logical communications channel. The communications channel may be a direct wireless connection between IIC applicationand Federal SCS. Alternatively, IIC applicationmay use a satellite connection which provides the usage schedule to Federal SCSvia internet or, it may use some other known or to be developed communication medium/mechanism.

322 304 308 312 322 304 304 112 326 326 322 304 304 SCSmay be configured to detect the presence of radar signals, such as those from airborne radar system, and can provide RF spectrum data and any information indicative of the presence of a radar to 5G coreand/or network optimizer. For example, SCSmay provide information indicative of a location and/or approximate location of airborne radar systemand/or information indicative of the trajectory or approximate trajectory of airborne radar system. SCSmay also receive other data from ESCor directly collect data. For example, either ESCor SCSmay collect data relating to the absence or presence of airborne radar system, the location of airborne radar system, or information pertaining to which 5G channels are available for use.

322 324 320 322 324 302 302 304 302 302 Federal SCSmay not want to provide the exact coordinates and the frequency of operation to commercial SASdue to security concerns. Hence, it may obfuscate these parameters. As an example, rather than providing when Radar plans to use the spectrum, IIC applicationand/or Federal SCSmay provide SASinformation on what is available to 5G communications systemto use. Communications systemmay then operate within the bounds of what is available without knowing the exact truth of the state of Radar system. This may be carried out by computing some obfuscated time and frequency schedule which may be available to 5G communications systemto operate at a particular location. This information is conveyed to the communications systemas a tuple of (Location, Times, Frequencies) that are available.

4 FIG. 400 402 404 302 406 408 410 412 302 illustrates example spectrum availability maps as a function of time and location according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Specifically, example mapmay be used to indicate groups of resource blocks (e.g., groupsand) are available to 5G communications systemfor use. In another example, mapmay be provided with groups,, andavailable to 5G communications systemfor use.

324 322 312 Commercial SASwhich interfaces with Federal SCSmay then pull this information periodically and convey the same to network optimizer(which may also be referred to as a controller or a RIC described above that is configured to perform the Wide Area Network Optimization (WAN Optimization)).

312 322 324 308 312 304 312 308 312 302 304 In some examples, network optimizermay receive information from SCS, SAS, and/or 5G core. Network optimizermay analyze the data received to determine if a radar system, for example, airborne radar system, is present and/or active in a given area. Network optimizermay also analyze the data received from 5G coreto determine 5G network's operational parameters and/or state. Network optimizermay analyze the data provided to it to determine adjustments to the operational parameters and/or state of the 5G network which would minimize or eliminate interference by 5G communications systemwith airborne radar system.

5 FIG. 2 FIG. 5 FIG. 3 FIG. 5 FIG. 3 FIG. 500 324 326 326 304 322 322 308 312 illustrates an example use of the application-based spectrum management system ofaccording to some aspects of the present disclosure. Architectureofand operational thereof is exactly the same as that described above with reference toexcept that commercial SASand/or ESCmay not be present as intermediary node(s). In this instance, functionalities of ESCmay be performed by radar systemitself and/or federal SCS. Additionally, Federal SCSmay directly interface with and communicate with 5G core/network optimizer. However, the remaining components ofand functionalities thereof are the same as that described with reference toand hence will not be further described for sake of brevity.

6 FIG. 2 FIG. 6 FIG. 3 FIG. 6 FIG. 3 FIG. 600 322 324 326 326 304 320 308 312 illustrates an example use of the application-based spectrum management system ofaccording to some aspects of the present disclosure. Architectureofand operational thereof is exactly the same as that described above with reference toexcept that federal SCS, commercial SASand/or ESCmay not be present as intermediary node(s). In this instance, functionalities of ESCmay be performed by radar systemitself and IIC applicationmay directly interface with and communicate with 5G core/network optimizer. However, the remaining components ofand functionalities thereof are the same as that described with reference toand hence will not be further described for sake of brevity.

320 304 306 302 306 302 310 In one example, the direct communication may be between IIC applicationof airborne radar systemand a corresponding IIC application installed on each of eNodeBsof 5G system. In this example, the direct communication will allow the eNodeBsto determine a spectrum sharing schedule based on the availability of the shared band received from IIC applicationand schedule transmission or the UEsaccording to the schedule.

7 FIG. 3 FIG. 7 FIG. 302 304 700 702 304 704 302 706 302 illustrates an interference control mechanism when operating in a shared spectrum according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Such interference control mechanism may be implemented via resource block sharing between a communications system such as wireless communications systemand radar systemof. As shown in, in a framesubcarriersmay be reserved for radar systemto be use while subcarriersmay be reserved for use by communications systemand subcarrierare not used. Such spectrum sharing may also be carried out at a much coarser granularity where the communications systemis provided a list of channels that are available to it at designated times and/or locations.

8 FIG. is a flow chart of an example process for spectrum management using IIC application according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

800 At step, the method can include receiving information related a schedule of use of a frequency band by one or more UEs of a system designated as incumbent user of the frequency band. Alternatively, the information received may be related to a schedule of use of the frequency band by one or more UEs of a system designated as a primary user of the frequency band. In another example, the information received may be related to a schedule of use of the frequency band by one or more UEs of a system designated as a secondary user of the frequency band,

310 306 316 318 206 210 214 2 FIG. The UEs can include any component in the corresponding incumbent, primary, and/or secondary network capable of transmitting radio frequency signals that may cause interference with signals of another system operating in the same frequency band. For example, a UE can be a user terminal such as UEs, eNodeBs, radar, receivers/transmitters associated with airplanes, antennas of BAS users,, and/orof, etc.

2 7 FIGS.- 2 FIG. 3 7 FIGS.- 108 304 The frequency band can be the shared band described above with reference to. The one or more UEs can be DoD usersof, aircrafts of airborne radar systemof, etc.

800 202 3 7 FIGS.- 2 FIG. The information received at stepcan be the tuple information described above with reference to, the information entered via IIC applicationdescribed for ENG users with reference to, etc.

800 326 In some examples, information at stepmay not be received by instead can be queried by IIC applications in real-time and/or periodically (e.g., via ESC).

In some other examples, the information received may be obfuscated due to security concerns and limitations.

802 800 308 312 102 322 324 2 7 FIGS.- 7 FIG. 2 FIG. 3 6 FIGS.- 3 5 6 FIGS.,, and At step, the method can include coordinating use of the frequency band (e.g., shared frequency band described above) by one or more incumbent UEs of the shared band, primary UEs of the shared band, and one or more secondary UEs of the shared band. This coordination can be performed according to various examples described above with reference toabove. For example, the information can be provided directly by IIC application via which the information is received at stepto a network controller (e.g., 5G coreor network optimizer), as described with reference to. Alternatively, the coordination may be performed by a network controller. The network controller can be the SMCSof, federal SCSof, and/or commercial SASof.

In some examples, this coordination may include aggregating information received from any incumbent, primary, and/or secondary UE operating in the shared frequency band and generating a spectrum sharing schedule according to which the incumbent, primary, and any secondary UE may transmit signals in a manner that would eliminate or minimize interference with signal transmission by other UEs that may have priority for transmission in the shared band.

2 7 FIGS.- While in examples described above with reference to, it is the incumbent system's UEs that provide notification of their usage of the shared band to the primary and/or secondary system in order to ensure no interference on the incumbent system by transmissions in the primary and/or secondary system, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some aspects, to maximize efficiency in utilization of resources available in the shared band, UEs and components of any system, whether incumbent, primary, or secondary, intending to use the shared band for transmission of RF signals, can provide that information (e.g., schedule of use) via a corresponding IIC application to the UEs and controllers of the other systems using the same shared band such that a comprehensive spectrum sharing schedule may be created for all devices operating in the shared band.

8 FIG. 4 FIG. 11 FIG. 102 302 324 804 Optionally, the method of, when performed by a network controller (e.g., SMCS, federal SCS, commercial SAS, and/or any other network controller associated with IIC applications described above), can include a stepfor dynamic spectrum sharing using a trained machine learning model. In some instances, a machine learning model or a neural network may be trained to received as input information associated with real-time usage of the shared band by various primary and secondary users, and provide as output a prediction of future use of the shared band. The network controller may then use this predict to perform resource allocation for primary and/or secondary users in the shared band (e.g., provide a map of allocated resource blocks in a manner similar to that shown in. An example neural network will be described below with reference to.

2 8 FIGS.- Various examples of application-based spectrum management have been described above with reference to. In these examples, non-limiting scenarios are described with UEs of two different systems (e.g., a RAN system and a Radar system, two RAN systems such as BAS and DoD system). However, the present disclosure is not limited to sharing of a frequency band by UEs of two systems. In some examples, UEs of multiple independent systems (RANs, Radars, BASs, etc.) may cohabitate in and use resources of a particular frequency band and hence the application-based approach described above can be utilized by all systems sharing a band to provide a distributed and near real-time coordination of transmissions in the shared band to avoid interference.

9 FIG. 9 FIG. 2 8 FIGS.- 900 322 324 102 905 900 905 910 905 illustrates an example network device according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Example of computing systemofcan be used to implement one or more component of the example systems and architectures described above with reference toincluding, but not limited to, any UE on which IIC application is installed, SCS, SAS, SMCS, etc. Connectioncan be connection connecting various components of the computing system. For example, connectioncan a physical connection via a bus, or a direct connection into processor, such as in a chipset architecture. Connectioncan also be a virtual connection, networked connection, or logical connection.

900 In some embodiments computing systemis a distributed system in which the functions described in this disclosure can be distributed within a datacenter, multiple datacenters, a peer network, etc. In some embodiments, one or more of the described system components represents many such components each performing some or all of the function for which the component is described. In some embodiments, the components can be physical or virtual devices.

900 910 905 915 920 925 910 900 912 910 Example systemincludes at least one processing unit (CPU or processor)and connectionthat couples various system components including system memory, such as read only memory (ROM)and random access memory (RAM)to processor. Computing systemcan include a cache of high-speed memoryconnected directly with, in close proximity to, or integrated as part of processor.

910 932 934 936 930 910 910 Processorcan include any general purpose processor and a hardware service or software service, such as services,, andstored in storage device, configured to control processoras well as a special-purpose processor where software instructions are incorporated into the actual processor design. Processorcan essentially be a completely self-contained computing system, containing multiple cores or processors, a bus, memory controller, cache, etc. A multi-core processor can be symmetric or asymmetric.

900 945 900 935 900 900 940 To enable user interaction, computing systemincludes an input device, which can represent any number of input mechanisms, such as a microphone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphical input, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech, etc. Computing systemcan also include output device, which can be one or more of a number of output mechanisms known to those of skill in the art. In some instances, multimodal systems can enable a user to provide multiple types of input/output to communicate with computing system. Computing systemcan include communications interface, which can generally govern and manage the user input and system output. There is no restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrangement and therefore the basic features here can easily be substituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.

930 Storage devicecan be a non-volatile memory device and can be a hard disk or other types of computer readable media which can store data that are accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, solid state memory devices, digital versatile disks, cartridges, random access memories (RAMs), read only memory (ROM), and/or some combination of these devices.

930 910 910 905 935 The storage devicecan include software services, servers, services, etc., that when the code that defines such software is executed by the processor, it causes the system to perform a function. In some embodiments, a hardware service that performs a particular function can include the software component stored in a computer-readable medium in connection with the necessary hardware components, such as processor, connection, output device, etc., to carry out the function.

For clarity of explanation, in some instances the present technology can be presented as including individual functional blocks including functional blocks comprising devices, device components, steps or routines in a method embodied in software, or combinations of hardware and software.

Any of the steps, operations, functions, or processes described herein can be performed or implemented by a combination of hardware and software services or services, alone or in combination with other devices. In some embodiments, a service can be software that resides in memory of a client device and/or one or more servers of a content management system and perform one or more functions when a processor executes the software associated with the service. In some embodiments, a service is a program, or a collection of programs that carry out a specific function. In some embodiments, a service can be considered a server. The memory can be a non-transitory computer-readable medium.

In some embodiments the computer-readable storage devices, mediums, and memories can include a cable or wireless signal containing a bit stream and the like. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readable storage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

Methods according to the above-described examples can be implemented using computer-executable instructions that are stored or otherwise available from computer readable media. Such instructions can comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause or otherwise configure a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Portions of computer resources used can be accessible over a network. The computer executable instructions can be, for example, binaries, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, or source code. Examples of computer-readable media that can be used to store instructions, information used, and/or information created during methods according to described examples include magnetic or optical disks, solid state memory devices, flash memory, USB devices provided with non-volatile memory, networked storage devices, and so on.

Devices implementing methods according to these disclosures can comprise hardware, firmware and/or software, and can take any of a variety of form factors. Typical examples of such form factors include servers, laptops, smart phones, small form factor personal computers, personal digital assistants, and so on. Functionality described herein also can be embodied in peripherals or add-in cards. Such functionality can also be implemented on a circuit board among different chips or different processes executing in a single device, by way of further example.

The instructions, media for conveying such instructions, computing resources for executing them, and other structures for supporting such computing resources are means for providing the functions described in these disclosures.

Although a variety of examples and other information was used to explain aspects within the scope of the appended claims, no limitation of the claims should be implied based on particular features or arrangements in such examples, as one of ordinary skill would be able to use these examples to derive a wide variety of implementations. Further and although some subject matter can have been described in language specific to examples of structural features and/or method steps, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to these described features or acts. For example, such functionality can be distributed differently or performed in components other than those identified herein. Rather, the described features and steps are disclosed as examples of components of systems and methods within the scope of the appended claims.

10 FIG. 1000 1000 illustrates an example network devicesuitable for performing switching, routing, load balancing, and other networking operations. The example network devicecan be implemented as switches, routers, nodes, metadata servers, load balancers, client devices, and so forth.

1000 1004 1002 1010 1004 1004 1004 1008 1008 1000 1006 1004 Network deviceincludes a central processing unit (CPU), interfaces, and a bus(e.g., a PCI bus). When acting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, the CPUis responsible for executing packet management, error detection, and/or routing functions. The CPUpreferably accomplishes all these functions under the control of software including an operating system and any appropriate applications software. CPUcan include one or more processors, such as a processor from the INTEL X86 family of microprocessors. In some cases, processorcan be specially designed hardware for controlling the operations of network device. In some cases, a memory(e.g., non-volatile RAM, ROM, etc.) also forms part of CPU. However, there are many different ways in which memory could be coupled to the system.

1002 1000 1004 The interfacesare typically provided as modular interface cards (sometimes referred to as “line cards”). Generally, they control the sending and receiving of data packets over the network and sometimes support other peripherals used with the network device. Among the interfaces that can be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relay interfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces, and the like. In addition, various very high-speed interfaces can be provided such as fast token ring interfaces, wireless interfaces, Ethernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, ATM interfaces, HSSI interfaces, POS interfaces, FDDI interfaces, WIFI interfaces, 3G/4G/5G cellular interfaces, CAN BUS, LoRA, and the like. Generally, these interfaces can include ports appropriate for communication with the appropriate media. In some cases, they can also include an independent processor and, in some instances, volatile RAM. The independent processors can control such communications intensive tasks as packet switching, media control, signal processing, crypto processing, and management. By providing separate processors for the communication intensive tasks, these interfaces allow the master CPU (e.g.,) to efficiently perform routing computations, network diagnostics, security functions, etc.

10 FIG. 1000 Although the system shown inis one specific network device of the present disclosure, it is by no means the only network device architecture on which the present disclosure can be implemented. For example, an architecture having a single processor that handles communications as well as routing computations, etc., is often used. Further, other types of interfaces and media could also be used with the network device.

1006 1006 Regardless of the network device's configuration, it can employ one or more memories or memory modules (including memory) configured to store program instructions for the general-purpose network operations and mechanisms for roaming, route optimization and routing functions described herein. The program instructions can control the operation of an operating system and/or one or more applications, for example. The memory or memories can also be configured to store tables such as mobility binding, registration, and association tables, etc. Memorycould also hold various software containers and virtualized execution environments and data.

1000 1000 1010 1000 The network devicecan also include an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which can be configured to perform routing and/or switching operations. The ASIC can communicate with other components in the network devicevia the bus, to exchange data and signals and coordinate various types of operations by the network device, such as routing, switching, and/or data storage operations, for example.

11 FIG. 8 FIG. 1100 1110 1101 1130 1110 804 1101 1110 1101 1110 illustrates an example neural network architecture according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Architectureincludes a neural networkdefined by an example neural network descriptionin rendering engine model (neural controller). Neural networkcan be used for the dynamic spectrum allocation described above with reference to stepof. Neural network descriptioncan include a full specification of neural network. For example, neural network descriptioncan include a description or specification of the architecture of neural network(e.g., the layers, layer interconnections, number of nodes in each layer, etc.); an input and output description which indicates how the input and output are formed or processed; an indication of the activation functions in the neural network, the operations or filters in the neural network, etc.; neural network parameters such as weights, biases, etc.; and so forth.

1110 1102 2 8 FIGS.- In this example, neural networkincludes an input layer, which can receive input data such as information of spectrum usage by UEs of various systems operating with the shared band, as described above with reference to.

1110 1104 1104 1104 1104 1110 1106 1104 Neural networkincludes hidden layersA throughN (collectively “” hereinafter). Hidden layerscan include n number of hidden layers, where n is an integer greater than or equal to one. The number of hidden layers can include as many layers as needed for a desired processing outcome and/or rendering intent. Neural networkfurther includes an output layerthat provides as output, predicted future use/transmission of signals in a shared frequency band by one or more (or all) UEs of various systems utilizing and cohabitating in a shared frequency band. This output may be based on processing performed by hidden layers.

1110 1110 1110 Neural networkin this example is a multi-layer neural network of interconnected nodes. Each node can represent a piece of information. Information associated with the nodes is shared among the different layers and each layer retains information as information is processed. In some cases, neural networkcan include a feed-forward neural network, in which case there are no feedback connections where outputs of the neural network are fed back into itself. In other cases, neural networkcan include a recurrent neural network, which can have loops that allow information to be carried across nodes while reading in input.

1102 1104 1102 1104 1104 1104 1104 1104 1106 1108 1108 1108 1110 Information can be exchanged between nodes through node-to-node interconnections between the various layers. Nodes of input layercan activate a set of nodes in first hidden layerA. For example, as shown, each of the input nodes of input layeris connected to each of the nodes of first hidden layerA. The nodes of hidden layerA can transform the information of each input node by applying activation functions to the information. The information derived from the transformation can then be passed to and can activate the nodes of the next hidden layer (e.g.,B), which can perform their own designated functions. Example functions include convolutional, up-sampling, data transformation, pooling, and/or any other suitable functions. The output of the hidden layer (e.g.,B) can then activate nodes of the next hidden layer (e.g.,N), and so on. The output of the last hidden layer can activate one or more nodes of output layer, at which point an output is provided. In some cases, while nodes (e.g., nodesA,B,C) in neural networkare shown as having multiple output lines, a node has a single output and all lines shown as being output from a node represent the same output value.

1110 1110 In some cases, each node or interconnection between nodes can have a weight that is a set of parameters derived from training neural network. For example, an interconnection between nodes can represent a piece of information learned about the interconnected nodes. The interconnection can have a numeric weight that can be tuned (e.g., based on a training dataset), allowing neural networkto be adaptive to inputs and able to learn as more data is processed.

1110 1102 1104 1106 1110 1110 1110 1110 1110 Neural networkcan be pre-trained to process the features from the data in the input layerusing the different hidden layersin order to provide the output through output layer. In an example in which neural networkis used to predict usage of the shared band, neural networkcan be trained using training data that includes past transmissions and operation in the shared band by the same UEs or UEs of similar systems (e.g., Radar systems, RAN systems, etc.). For instance, past transmission information can be input into neural network, which can be processed by neural networkto generate outputs which can be used to tune one or more aspects of neural network, such as weights, biases, etc.

1110 In some cases, neural networkcan adjust weights of nodes using a training process called backpropagation. Backpropagation can include a forward pass, a loss function, a backward pass, and a weight update. The forward pass, loss function, backward pass, and parameter update is performed for one training iteration. The process can be repeated for a certain number of iterations for each set of training media data until the weights of the layers are accurately tuned.

1110 1110 For a first training iteration for neural network, the output can include values that do not give preference to any particular class due to the weights being randomly selected at initialization. For example, if the output is a vector with probabilities that the object includes different product(s) and/or different users, the probability value for each of the different product and/or user may be equal or at least very similar (e.g., for ten possible products or users, each class may have a probability value of 0.1). With the initial weights, neural networkis unable to determine low level features and thus cannot make an accurate determination of what the classification of the object might be. A loss function can be used to analyze errors in the output. Any suitable loss function definition can be used.

1110 1110 The loss (or error) can be high for the first training dataset (e.g., images) since the actual values will be different than the predicted output. The goal of training is to minimize the amount of loss so that the predicted output comports with a target or ideal output. Neural networkcan perform a backward pass by determining which inputs (weights) most contributed to the loss of neural network, and can adjust the weights so that the loss decreases and is eventually minimized.

1110 A derivative of the loss with respect to the weights can be computed to determine the weights that contributed most to the loss of neural network. After the derivative is computed, a weight update can be performed by updating the weights of the filters. For example, the weights can be updated so that they change in the opposite direction of the gradient. A learning rate can be set to any suitable value, with a high learning rate including larger weight updates and a lower value indicating smaller weight updates.

1110 1110 Neural networkcan include any suitable neural or deep learning network. One example includes a convolutional neural network (CNN), which includes an input layer and an output layer, with multiple hidden layers between the input and out layers. The hidden layers of a CNN include a series of convolutional, nonlinear, pooling (for downsampling), and fully connected layers. In other examples, neural networkcan represent any other neural or deep learning network, such as an autoencoder, a deep belief nets (DBNs), a recurrent neural networks (RNNs), etc.

For clarity of explanation, in some instances the present technology can be presented as including individual functional blocks including functional blocks comprising devices, device components, steps or routines in a method embodied in software, or combinations of hardware and software.

Any of the steps, operations, functions, or processes described herein can be performed or implemented by a combination of hardware and software services or services, alone or in combination with other devices. In some embodiments, a service can be software that resides in memory of a client device and/or one or more servers of a content management system and perform one or more functions when a processor executes the software associated with the service. In some embodiments, a service is a program, or a collection of programs that carry out a specific function. In some embodiments, a service can be considered a server. The memory can be a non-transitory computer-readable medium.

In some embodiments the computer-readable storage devices, mediums, and memories can include a cable or wireless signal containing a bit stream and the like. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readable storage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

Methods according to the above-described examples can be implemented using computer-executable instructions that are stored or otherwise available from computer readable media. Such instructions can comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause or otherwise configure a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Portions of computer resources used can be accessible over a network. The computer executable instructions can be, for example, binaries, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, or source code. Examples of computer-readable media that can be used to store instructions, information used, and/or information created during methods according to described examples include magnetic or optical disks, solid state memory devices, flash memory, USB devices provided with non-volatile memory, networked storage devices, and so on.

Devices implementing methods according to these disclosures can comprise hardware, firmware and/or software, and can take any of a variety of form factors. Typical examples of such form factors include servers, laptops, smart phones, small form factor personal computers, personal digital assistants, and so on. Functionality described herein also can be embodied in peripherals or add-in cards. Such functionality can also be implemented on a circuit board among different chips or different processes executing in a single device, by way of further example.

The instructions, media for conveying such instructions, computing resources for executing them, and other structures for supporting such computing resources are means for providing the functions described in these disclosures.

Although a variety of examples and other information was used to explain aspects within the scope of the appended claims, no limitation of the claims should be implied based on particular features or arrangements in such examples, as one of ordinary skill would be able to use these examples to derive a wide variety of implementations. Further and although some subject matter can have been described in language specific to examples of structural features and/or method steps, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to these described features or acts. For example, such functionality can be distributed differently or performed in components other than those identified herein. Rather, the described features and steps are disclosed as examples of components of systems and methods within the scope of the appended claims.